Knights watch: Five big question as Vegas opens a new season with Stanley Cup ambitions

Year Nine arrives for Las Vegas’ most beloved professional sports team with no signs of contentment or stagnation in sight from the franchise.

The Vegas Golden Knights are still pushing as hard as ever to win at the highest level possible as they open the new season October 9 against the San Jose Sharks. Concepts like rebuilding or lowering expectations are foreign to the likes of owner Bill Foley, president of hockey operations George McPhee, general manager Kelly McCrimmon and coach Bruce Cassidy.

The powers that be are all in on chasing a second Stanley Cup to pair with the 2023 championship. Here are five questions they’ll need to help answer to give the Golden Knights the best chance to get back to the top. 

How much will Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner play together?

The top question coming into the season is certainly a luxury problem, and nothing better illustrates the Golden Knights’ current position of strength. Vegas has the best one-two punch of firepower in franchise history after executing a sign-and-trade for the former Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Marner to pair with Eichel. The challenge becomes whether supercharging a top line with both of them playing alongside each other, or spreading their minutes out is more beneficial.

In training camp and the preseason, Cassidy has gone more with the former, though he’s not committed to Eichel and Marner being an inseparable duo all season long. The veteran coach likes to tinker with personnel combinations, especially if his team is underperforming.

Expect Marner, Eichel and Ivan Barbashev to get the initial crack as Vegas’ first forward line—with Mark Stone, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith looking cemented as the second—but it might not be permanent. Marner and Eichel are guaranteed to log a lot of ice time together on the power play, but the even-strength plan could be a work in progress. 

Will the rearranged defense jell and remain a strength?

The primary reason the Golden Knights were able to commit nearly $100 million to Marner over eight years is because of the kind-of, sort-of, now-not-really retirement of assistant captain/defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.

It’s a swap any team would take considering Pietrangelo is now past his prime at 35 years old, with his game and health declining in the last two seasons. But that doesn’t mean the future Hall of Famer wasn’t still vital to the Golden Knights.

Cassidy has always been a defense-first coach, and Pietrangelo has long been his standard-bearer. Pietrangelo led the Golden Knights in ice time per game in all three of Cassidy’s seasons at the helm, and two more before the coach arrived in Vegas.

He’s now on long-term injured reserve with hip injuries. Pietrangelo says he’s not ruling out returning to play this season, but all indications are that it would be a long shot.

That leaves a lot of solid minutes production to replace. Vegas should have the talent to adjust, especially with All Star-caliber blue-liners in Noah Hanifin and Shea Theodore.

They’ve both been inconsistent in the recent past, but with Pietrangelo always there to help clean it up. That security blanket is now gone, meaning everyone else in the unit needs to step up. 

Will they get good enough play in net?

Stanley Cup hero netminder Adin Hill was average at best last season, and that was with a stronger projected defense playing in front of him than he will have this year.

The Golden Knights also prefer a more modern plan where Hill plays only about 60% of the regular season games to conserve for the playoffs, especially since he’s struggled with injuries. That’s where the real concern comes in.

Akira Schmid, who was mediocre with the Henderson Silver Knights last season, is currently Hill’s backup. Carl Lindbom, who was better in Henderson, could also push for the role, but he’s considered not quite ready yet at only 22 years old. 

Vegas has been linked with several lower-tier veteran goalkeepers via trade or free agency—most notably Carter Hart, who was recently acquitted in a highly-publicized sexual assault case in Canada—but none have come to fruition as of publication time.

Goaltending might be the one undeniable weakness on the roster unless Hill can regain his top form.

Can they be more competitive with the best teams in the league?

Vegas won an astounding fourth Pacific Division championship in eight years last season, but largely did it as a result of fattening up on the dregs of the group.

The Golden Knights went 16-0-2 against the five division opponents that failed to make the playoffs—the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Seattle Kraken, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. They struggled against the pair of fellow contenders, going 3-5 versus the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.

Vegas’ mediocrity against strong teams really showed in the playoffs, where it escaped Minnesota in a razor-thin, six-game best-of-seven series, and then were dominated in a five-game best-of-seven series loss to back-to-back Western Conference champion Edmonton.

The Golden Knights must perform better in their own weight class this year instead of serving as the NHL’s ultimate bullies of bad teams.

What roster additions are on the way?

No front office has been more aggressive than the Golden Knights’ over the last decade, so fans should be accustomed to not getting attached to every player going into a season.

Much to the chagrin of fans from other teams across the league, McPhee and McCrimmon have mastered the trade market and overall roster management. The Golden Knights are really up against the salary cap this year, but don’t ever doubt their ability and drive to improve where they find it possible.

One name has stood out above the rest as far as rumors this offseason in Calgary defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who’s expected to be dealt by the March 2026 trade deadline with an expiring contract. The Golden Knights are reportedly Andersson’s top choice for his next stop after nine seasons with the Flames.

Marner was subject to similar rumors a year ago, and he ultimately landed in Vegas. Andersson might be even trickier financially, but it’s hard to rule anything out.

Maybe this year’s deal won’t be so flashy, but it feels like all but a certainty that someone new will surface during the season.

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.